{"id":725,"date":"2014-03-14T12:51:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T12:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/?p=725"},"modified":"2016-11-07T14:38:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T20:38:26","slug":"come-celebrate-pi-day-3-14159","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/come-celebrate-pi-day-3-14159\/","title":{"rendered":"Come Celebrate Pi Day 3.14,1:59!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PI\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On March 14 at 1:59 pm we gather together to celebrate the most famous and mysterious of numbers.\u00a0 That Pi is\u00a0defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter\u00a0<\/span>seems simple enough but Pi turns out to be an “irrational number.\u201d\u00a0 Computer scientists have calculated billions of digits of pi, starting with 3.14159265358979323\u2026, no recognizable pattern emerges in the digits.\u00a0 Scientists could continue calculating the next digit all the way to infinity and still have no idea which digit might emerge next.\u00a0 To these facts can be added that March 14 is also Einstein\u2019s birthday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pi is a number that has fascinated scholars for 4,000 years.\u00a0 The mathematical history of pi comes from around the world.\u00a0 In 1900 B.C., the Babylonians calculated the area of the circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius.\u00a0 One Babylonian tablet (ca 1900-1680 B.C.) indicates a value of 3.125 for pi, which is a close approximation. Around 1650 B.C., the Rhind Papyrus, a famous document of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, also calculated the area of a circle which gave the approximate value of 3.1605.<\/p>\n

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\"Archimedes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 250 B.C., the Greek mathematician Archimedes calculated the circumference of a circle to its\u00a0 diameter.\u00a0 Archimedes\u00a0 value , was not only more accurate; it was the first theoretical rather than measured calculations of pi.\u00a0 Archimedes knew that he had not found the value of pi but only an approximation. He used a fairy simply geometrical approach for his calculations.\u00a0 See how he did it by launching the interactive model on this pbs.org site: http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/physics\/approximating-pi.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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Zu Chongzhi (429-501 AD?) was a Chinese mathematician and astronomer, who was not familiar with Archimedes method. He calculated the value of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Unfortunately, his book has been lost so very little is known of his work.<\/p>\n

In 1761, a Swiss mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert (1782-1777) proved the irrationality of pi.\u00a0 An irrational number is a number that cannot be made into a fraction where the decimal never ends or repeat sequences.<\/p>\n

By 1882, F. Lindeman proved that pi was transcendental, that is, that pi is not the root of any algebraic equation with rational coefficients.\u00a0 This discovery proved that you can\u2019t \u201csquare the circle\u201d which was a problem that vexed many mathematicians up to that time.\u00a0 Another fascination for mathematicians throughout history was to calculate the digits of pi, but until computers, less than 1,000 digits had been calculated.\u00a0 With the calculations of the computer, millions of digits have been calculated.<\/p>\n

REFERENCES:<\/b><\/p>\n

Adiran, Y. E. O.\u00a0 The Pleasures of Pi, e and Other Interesting Numbers.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Singapore: World Scientific Pub., c2006.\u00a0 Engineering\u00a0Library\u00a0QA95\u00a0.A2 2006<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Alsina, Claudi.\u00a0 Icons of Mathematics:\u00a0 An Exploration of Twenty Key Images<\/span><\/i>. Washington, D.C.:\u00a0 Mathematical Association of America c2011.\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/site.ebrary.com\/lib\/uiowa\/Doc?id=10728529<\/a><\/p>\n

Beckman, Petr.\u00a0 The History of Pi<\/span><\/i>. Boulder: Colorado: The Golem Press, 1977.\u00a0 Main\u00a0Math Collection\u00a0QA484\u00a0.B4 1977<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Chongzhi, Zu.\u00a0 Encyclopedia Britannica.\u00a0 Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2014.\u00a0 Web, 10 March 2014.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Http:\/\/wwwbritannica.com \/ EBchecked\/topic\/1073884\/Zu-Chongzhi<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Main Reference\u00a0Collection\u00a0AE5\u00a0.E363 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

Exploratorium. (2014). Pi Day. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.exploratorium.edu\/pi\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Gillings, R.\u00a0Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs.<\/i><\/a>\u00a0Boston, MA: MIT Press, 89-103, 1972.\u00a0 Main\u00a0Math Collection\u00a0QA27.E3\u00a0G52\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Gardner, Milo<\/a>. “Rhind Papyrus.”\u00a0From\u00a0MathWorld<\/i><\/a>–A Wolfram Web Resource, created by\u00a0Eric W. Weisstein<\/a>. http:\/\/mathworld.wolfram.com\/RhindPapyrus.html<\/a><\/p>\n

A facsimile of this papyrus can also be found at the
\nMain\u00a0Oversize\u00a0FOLIO\u00a0PJ1681\u00a0R5 1927<\/a>
\n Main\u00a0Math Collection\u00a0FOLIO\u00a0PJ1681\u00a0R5 1927<\/a><\/p>\n

Hobson, Ernest William.\u00a0 Squaring the Circle and Other Monographs<\/i>. New York: Chelsea, 1953.\u00a0 Main\u00a0Math Collection\u00a0QA467\u00a0.H62 1953\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

KHANACADEMY. (2014). A\u00a0Song About\u00a0A Circle Constant.\u00a0Retrieved from https:\/\/www.khanacademy.org\/math\/recreational-math\/vi-hart\/pi-tau\/v\/a-song-about-a-circle-constant<\/a><\/p>\n

Libeskind, Shlomo.\u00a0 Euclidean and Transformational Geometry: A <\/span>Deductive Inquiry.<\/span><\/i> Sudbury, Mass.:\u00a0 Jones and Bartlett Publishers, c 2008.\u00a0Engineering\u00a0Library\u00a0QA453\u00a0.L53 2008\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Mackenzie, D. “Fractions to Make an Egyptian Scribe Blanch.”\u00a0<\/em>Science<\/i>\u00a0278<\/b>, 224, 1997.<\/p>\n

McCall, Martin W.\u00a0 Classical Mechanics:\u00a0 From Newton to Einstein: A Modern Introduction<\/i>.\u00a0 Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010.\u00a0 Engineering\u00a0Library\u00a0QC125.2\u00a0.M385 2011\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Robins, G. and Shute, C.\u00a0The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: An Ancient Egyptian Text.<\/i><\/a>\u00a0New York: Dover, 1990.\u00a0Main\u00a0Math Collection\u00a0QA30.3\u00a0.R63 1987\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Weingardt, Richard.\u00a0 Circles in The Sky: \u00a0The Life and Times of George Ferris<\/i>.\u00a0 Reston, VA,: American Society of Civil Engineers, C.2009.\u00a0 Engineering\u00a0Library\u00a0TA140.F455\u00a0W45 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

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On March 14 at 1:59 pm we gather together to celebrate the most famous and mysterious of numbers.\u00a0 That Pi is\u00a0defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter\u00a0seems simple enough but Pi turns out to be an “irrational number.\u201d\u00a0 Computer scientists have calculated billions of digits of pi, starting withContinue reading “Come Celebrate Pi Day 3.14,1:59!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5027,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/5027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}